ILKLEY, England — Jan. 4, 2022 — Virtual College has reached an agreement with Netex, a Spanish technology company specializing in eLearning solutions and listed on the Spanish BME stock market, for them to acquire all the shares in Virtual College.

This is a strategic acquisition with the aim of:

• expanding the Group’s product portfolio – particularly around LXP and LMS technology, cloud authoring tool technology, talent management technology, ready to go content and bespoke training solutions and consultancy expertise
• broadening the Group’s customer base
• addressing a wider geographic market and expanding global reach
• increasing capacity to grow and dominate the corporate and EdTech markets

The combination of the two companies leads to new opportunities and synergies that will accelerate the company’s growth. With the integration of Virtual College, Netex will offer new technologies and solutions including hundreds of professional training courses made available to users, through different channels including Netex’s own marketplace.

The integration of Virtual College in the Netex Group will result in an expected annual turnover for FY22 of approx. £17m.

Rod Knox & Bob Gomersall, Co-founders of Virtual College said: “The combination of the Virtual College and Netex businesses creates a huge opportunity to work together to build on the vast skills, knowledge and experience that both businesses have developed over the last 25 years. This combined provision creates a leading-edge e-learning solution that will enhance the offer within existing markets and opens significant new opportunities to expand internationally.”

Carlos Ezquerro, CEO of Netex: “The addition of Virtual College to the Netex structure is a very important step for the company in its plans for development, international expansion and the search for leadership in the e-learning sector at an international level. We welcome the entire Virtual College team, now part of Netex, who will be crucial in achieving our new collective vision and goals.”

As Alejandro Faginas, Netex’s CFO: “The company’s management has been very involved in the search for interesting growth possibilities in the market. During the last few months, we have studied more than 30 deals, until we found the right one for Netex at this time. The integration of Virtual College is an immediate accelerator in our penetration of the English-speaking market, both in the UK and the U.S.

Hannah Brindle, MD, of Virtual College: “The entire Virtual College Team are hugely excited about our collaboration with Netex. Working with new colleagues on a shared, ambitious vision for the future of learning is what drives us to be better than we were yesterday. We can’t wait to be part of this new Netex Virtual College partnership.”

About Virtual College

Founded in 1995 with approximately 100 employees, Virtual College has a long history as a major player in the UK e-learning market, specializing in providing e-learning workplace training solutions from ready to go content through to large scale bespoke training transformation projects underpinned by learning management system technology and digital learning expertise. Virtual College has experience of supporting over 4.7 million learners across the public and private sectors.

About Netex

Netex is a technology-based company that offers a complete ecosystem of cloud-based learning solutions applied in enterprise, publishing and educational institutions. The company was created in 1997 with the goal of transforming the use of learning technologies into an everyday habit, making them simple and accessible to users. Since October 31, 2017, Netex has been listed on the Alternative Stock Market and currently has a workforce of around 150 employees spread across its locations in Europe and America and with products that are distributed in 35 countries.